PawPrints
by Alagorn Black
Summary: Six years after Breaking Dawn, Jacob and Nessie go camping. Jake has a secret to reviel. How will Nessie react? What does their future hold?
1. Chapter 1

Paw-Prints

A/N This is the first part of my story. PLease review and tell me what you think! Enjoy!

Paw-Prints

We were going camping, so, of course, it had snowed. The air that slid through my nose was frigid, full of tiny icy particles. The trees were frosted in white ice, glimmering in the weak winter sun.

I could feel Nessie as a patch of warmth upon my back. Her knees locked tightly behind my surging shoulder blades, her fingers twisted into my long ruff.

She reached out, lightly touching my cheek, to share her wonder and enjoyment of this silent, shining world. I huffed a soft agreement, as we continued to race across the snow, leaving a light trail of paw prints behind us.

By the time the tent was set up, black thunderheads had covered the sky again. We abandoned our other plans, the tent, at this stage, looking much more attractive.

The wind picked up as I finished the last scroll. Unsurprisingly even Nessie didn't make faces at her fathers cinnamon scrolls.

I watched as we ate. She didn't know it, yet, but this was not one of our regular trips. I had something I had to tell her. I wondered how she would react to the news.

Her parents, Bella and Edward, thought that Nessie would handle it, but there had still been some concern in their faces as we had left.

I didn't want to loose her, but she had to know the truth. And there was no time better than now.

"Nessie?"

"Yeah Jake?" She unzipped a sleeping bag and slung it around her shoulders, the movement making the stylised silver paw prints swing on their chain.

A lump had formed in my throat. I stared at her while trying, unsuccessfully, to swallow.

Although Nessie had only been born six years previously, she was on par with the other seventeen, eighteen year olds. She was ready for this, and I needed her to know.

"You remember, last year, the big bon-fire? The joint vampire-werewolf one?"

"I think so," a slight frown line appeared between her brows. "That was when Carlisle was writing his paper, wasn't it?'

I nodded and laughed, remembering the good vampire doc, with his tests and pages of notes, consulting the entire group for his paper.

" Yeah. That's the one. We also discussed theories one our werewolf traits."

"All but one," she replied, the frown deepening. "None of you ever mentioned imprinting. I never understood why you didn't discuss..." She trailed off, realising that my eyes and slid from her face and onto the floor.

"Jake?"

" They didn't discuss it because I asked them not to." I wrenched my eyes from the ground, back to her face.

" I knew that if they talked about it, they would end up talking about my imprinting too."

"What?" she gasped, "You never...!"

I held up one finger, requesting silence.

"I didn't want them to talk about it, in front of you. Not before I'd told you myself. At the time you weren't ready to know. I wasn't ready for you to know."

There was no point putting it off any longer. I steadied myself, holding her eyes with my own.

" Nessie, I have imprinted on some one. I imprinted on her six years ago. I haven't told her yet, neither of us have been ready for it." I took a deep breath.

"Renesmee, six years ago I imprinted on you."

Her face froze in shock, eyes staring. I gently reached out and took her hand, placing her long fingers on my cheek. Now I could see the emotions whish tumbled within her.

Surprise first, followed by comprehension as all the puzzle pieces finally came together, a combination of humour and self-disgust at the fact that she had not realised it herself, but lurking under it all; fear.

My stomach clenched. I didn't want Nessie to be afraid, especially not of me. Nothing had to change, not if she didn't want it to.


	2. Chapter 2

His words froze me in shock, momentarily, before the emotions started tumbling within me

His words froze me in shock, momentarily, before the emotions started tumbling within me. I felt like a snow globe that a little kid had got hold off and was shaking as hard as they could.

Deeper within me another bubble rose. This one was different. It moved as slow as syrup, swelling as it ascended. Part of me recognised it. Fear. That small piece of me sighed in acceptance. Pushing it down would do no good.

Jakes grip on my fingers tightened just as the bubble swamped me.

As most teenage girls do, I had imagined myself in simular situations before. But I had always been level-headed enough to realise that if such an unlikely occasion did arise, I would be scared out of my whits.

I had always applied logic to these situations. The fear that swamped me now left no space for logic, no room to think. I had been frightened before, but never this badly.

I don't know how long I sat there, all but suffocating in the black, before Jacobs worried voice broke through.

"Nessie girl? Nessie? It doesn't change anything. We can just continue on the same…"

It didn't snap me out of it, but at least it stopped me from sinking any further.

Hanging there in the dark, the fear changed. Instead of falling through endless dark, a hundred different aspects of it hammered at me.

A lot of it was illogical; visions of Jake forcing me, or blaming me for having led him on, telling me that I had to.

But Jake didn't lie to me, I knew this. If he wouldn't, or couldn't tell me about something, he told me to just leave it be. He wouldn't have said that it didn't matter if it had.

But as power leaked from these nightmares, others reared to take their places.

These were of me telling Jake no, or yes, and discovering later that it had been the wrong answer. That was my greatest fear: to rush and make the wrong discission, to loose Jake completely.

NO sooner had I concluded this than Jacob broke through to me again.

"Nessie, I'm going to fetch Edward. I don't know what else to do. We'll be back soon, promise."

It felt like he'd slapped me. He was leaving. No! My mind panicked. No, no, no!

It wasn't until I was in his arms, and he was prying my frozen fingers from his face that I realised that my mental linguistics had become vocal.

"It's all right," his fingers combed my hair back from my face. "I won't speak about this again, nothing is going to change."

I glanced up at his worried eyes. Five small bruises rode his cheek where my fingers had dug in. I shivered and ducked my face against his chest. It took a lot to bruise Jacob.

"That's not it," I mumbled. "Just don't leave me, ever"

"I'm not going anywhere." He promised, but I could hear the confusion on his voice.

"I'm scared Jake," I whispered. "I'm scared of saying the wrong thing."

My voice got even quieter. "Please don't rush me in this."

His arms tightened around me as he leaned down to whisper in my ear.

"I'm not going to rush you Nessie, we have all the time in the world. That doesn't mean I'm not going to try."


	3. Chapter 3

The snow was falling again, covering everything in another layer of white.

I twitched my tail, sweeping the build up of snow from my back. If I left it too long, the snow would melt, and soak through my thick pelt.

It wasn't particularly comfortable, lying like this. My body was curled up outside the small tent, paws folded to my chest, with just my head poking through a small gap in the zipped door.

Nessie lay facing the opposite wall, just about as far away as she could get in the tiny two-man space. I could tell that she wasn't sleeping though; she was too still.

The whole night passed like that, not a sound to be heard but our breathing, the beating of our hearts, and the strange muffled silence of falling snow.

Come morning, we packed up the site, me still in wolf form.

I wondered if Nessie would allow me to carry her back to the house, or if she would find that idea too intimate now.

I hoped she would ride me if only for the sake of time.

Unlike full vampires, she was not fast enough to run across the surface of the snow. She would flounder, even if not nearly as badly as a human would.

Neither could I run so fast, but my wide paws didn't sink too far.

When it came time to leave, I just stood, not presuming either action, just waiting. Without looking at me Nessie made the small jump onto my back.

I gathered my muscles, and sprang out into a dead run, nose to home.

A huge wolfy grin spread across my face. That's one to me, I thought.


	4. Chapter 4

Curse Jake! I thought mutinously. Why did he have to bring it up now? At all?

I kicked the doona off, leaving it knotted on the floor. Bed wasn't helping, my room wasn't helping. The whole inside thing. It wasn't helping.

I flung my self from the twisted sheets and headed for the stairs. Some times being part vampire was a pain: the height from my attic room was just too high to jump.

I ran south-east, headed for the oldest part of the forest. Here the trees were ancient and huge, beards of moss hung from their branches.

My tree stood on the top of a small rise, it's knurled roots twisting through the dark soil surrounding it. It was only the matter of a minute to scale right to the topmost branches.

Just sitting here, my mind cleared. I breathed out deeply, reaching for a pine cone. A light breeze caused the tree to sway slightly. From here I could see the mountains and right across the ocean to James Island. Slowly I shredded the pine cone, piece by piece as I sat back and contemplated my own mind. Being able to show others my mind didn't mean that I understood it for myself most of the time.

I don't know what a normal person would worry about when faced with such a quandary. But I wasn't normal, Jacob wasn't normal, my whole family wasn't normal. We were, in fact, just about as abnormal as you could get. We were even abnormal for our respective abnormal societies.

As it were I had my own problems.

It was over time for us to move on. My family had long since stopped visiting the town. The story had been that the whole family had moved closer to the universities where various members were supposedly studying. The only ones to know different were Jake, Grampa, Sue, Billy and the rest of the packs. The fact that they didn't age had to be kept secret from the rest of the normal human population. That was the rules.

I had been the opposite. In seven years I had grown from baby to adult, which would have been even more obvious than the whole non-aging thing. Being able to spend time with people was one thing I was looking forwards to now I had stopped growing.

Oh Jake, what was I supposed to do? I wasn't even sure myself where I wanted this to go. I sighed and plucked another pine cone. Jake was my best friend, my brother, could he become more? Did I want him to?

The questions spun through my head, not finding answers. I needed to talk to someone; this was far too much for one part vampire to try to figure out on her own.

I'd always confided in Jake, could I do so this time?

I glanced up at the one small patch of blue sky in the otherwise over-cast sky, and decided that it was worth a shot, he'd never miss led me before. I slipped down the tree and headed for home.


	5. Chapter 5

I wiped my hands off on the oily rag, removing some of the grease from them. The car I was working on was a 1967 Chevrolet Impala, a birthday present from Edward and Bella.

I smiled, remembering Bella's quip about how even she would be able to recognise the dusty-blue car. And it was true, I thought. The Impala stood out clearly from the rest of the flashy Cullen vehicles.

Car styles had changed dramatically in thirty years, and its powder-blue paint job seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it. But with a little help from Rosalie and Edward, the finished project would be just as fast and fuel efficient as the Vanquish, or the new pride and joy, the Lamborghini Gallardo. That had been an eightieth anniversary present for Esme.

Next to Edwards gifts my own looked inconsequential, but the handful of carvings I had given them were prized. Even the flat piece of wood I'd polished until it reflected for Rosalie was treasured. I'd seen in on her dressing table once. She'd glared at me, daring me to give her rib for it. I hadn't. I was quite honoured that she'd kept it at all.

Checking my watch, I sighed. I was going to be late. Earlier that week I'd organised to meet Embry, Quill and Seth down at the court. I'd hoped at the time that Nessie would come, but now that looked unlikely: I hadn't seen her since we got back from the camping trip.

I dragged my bike out from under the tarp in the corner. I slung my leg over the seat, flicking up the stand. About to kick the bike into life, I paused. I could hear someone running, too slow for a vampire, too loud for anyone who really didn't want to be heard.

Nessie was coming back.

I dumped the bike on the ground, all thoughts of my pack forgotten. Nessie was back, and from the sound of it, looking for me.


	6. Chapter 6

I knew Jake would find me here, I could hear him coming now.

The damp from the moss covered log I sat on soaked into my jeans. Uncomfortable though it was, I didn't care. I would even more uncomfortable in a moment.

This was going to be a vocal conversation; I couldn't risk hurting Jacob with uncontrolled emotions.

My heart started to speed up. I stared into green forest, the crunching of needles and snow growing louder.

Nessie knew the moment I entered the tiny clearing. No doubt she'd listened to approaching foot steps.

"Jake? Would you come here please?" There was a catch in her tightly controlled voice, and she didn't look up when I sat down next to her.

Her fine hands were clenched tightly in her lap.

It was going to be one of those conversations.

I knew how hard this was going to be for her. She hated making mistakes, or upsetting people. She also hated having to start conversations.

At least I could help out there.

"Nessie,"

"No, don't Jake." She raised her hand. "Please just listen to me." She took a deep breath. "I need to talk to my best friend. Not the werewolf with his strange habits, or the brother who wants to protect me. Just my friend." She looked up then.

I took her hand. "He's here." She smiled slightly before she extracted her hand mouth from mine.

"Someone, they told me something Jake. They were serious about it too. They told me, they told me that they loved me." She stopped there, not meeting my eyes.

"And how do you feel about it?"

"I'm not sure. See, this person, they mean a lot to me. It terrifies me that I might hurt them by giving them the wrong answer."

"This person, how do you feel about him?" It was surprising easy to look at this impartially, well in one way at least. Being Nessie's friend was so natural.

"I Love them, but as a friend, a brother." I nodded. "More importantly though, what do you want Nessie? Would you like it to be more?"

She looked at me then, and her eyes were lost. This is why she needed to talk to the friend who knew her better than she did herself.

Jacob knew that we'd come to the critical stage, I could see the knowledge in his serious eyes.

"Can you see us Nessie? Like Bella and Edward, like Jared and Kim? Would you like that?"

He was so intense, but that was still my best friend watching me. I turned and buried my face against his warm chest like I had when I was little. His earthy scent helped me to calm down. It cleared my head.

Is that what I wanted?

Deep down I knew the answer (How could I not?). For all my life I had been surrounded my prefect matches. Especially with my limited social contact, I had dreamed for a long time of finding someone who was so completely my other half.

Yes that is what I wanted.

But could I put a face to my mental picture? Could Jacob fill that place? I couldn't imagine my life without him. Jacob was always there. He was a pillar in my distantly imagined future. He was always there, looking out for me.

Looking out… A whisper from Alice echoed through my head.

'Love does not consist in gazing at each other but it looking outward in the same direction.'

I almost laughed. Maybe that was why I hadn't been able to picture him there: I'd visualised it wrong.

Jacob deep voice rumbled in his chest. "I'll always be here, no matter what." But there was a definite smile in his voice.

Drat! I'd forgotten about what I was doing. Jake, he could see my answer now, as clearly as I could.

I sat up to glare at him, but the unrepented glee in his face made it impossible

"I think I know my answer."

"I think you do too." His smile broadened.

I smiled back.

"Yes, that is what I want."


End file.
